Charities are set to benefit from a local authority’s campaign to get students to recycle and reuse their property when they leave their term-time homes this summer. Manchester City Council is working with the University of Manchester and the city’s Metropolitan University to try to end the problem of piles of rubbish being left outside properties when they are vacated.

The city has one of the biggest student populations in Europe and the council estimates that 7,000 properties will be covered by the campaign. Students living in relevant areas will be given bags for old clothes, sheets and shoes, as well as reusable materials. The materials will go to charities such as Oxfam, the Mustard Tree or the Fallowfield-based Wesley Community Furniture Project.

The council has set up a text messaging system and e-mail address so students who leave materials outside for collection can notify the authority. They then get entered into a draw to win prizes including a year-long bus pass. The new campaign follows a scheme last year, in which extra collections were organised for student halls of residence.

Nigel Murphy, the council’s Assistant Executive Member for the Environment, said:”Manchester has the biggest student population in Europe and we’re very lucky to have them here, but we also need to make sure the city’s permanent residents face as little disruption as possible when thousands of students leave their homes at the end of the summer term.”

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